JG covers all sorts of innovative homes, but to be entirely honest, we prefer the affordable. So Caleb Schafer nabbed our interest when he emailed us about his efficient, modern home. Four years ago, after graduating from architecture school, he and his wife moved to Texas and began building the home on a 1.5 acre site due north of San Antonio. They built it for ~$70,000 — it's a 1400 square foot home — we're talking about $50 psf. Not bad! Here's how they did it:

Remember when we mentioned project7ten? We were probably one of the earliest to mention the wildly popular home, so we were interested to notice that some of the same folks behind project7ten just finished another green home called 737conserve. Located at 737 Milwood Avenue and designed by Patrick Tighe, 737conserve has the same warm and modern feel that project7ten has. Here are some photos and a list of of its many green elements:

The latest Dwell has an article by Geoff Manaugh on the Dwell Home II. After four years in "home design and permitting," homeowners Glen Martin and Claudia Plasencia have broken ground. They're moving forward with construction. The homeowners are building this design from Escher GuneWardena Architecture, which they chose because sustainability was presented as "an integrated system," as opposed to as an afterthought. Here are a few of the home's green elements:

This is an affordable green home that is also the first, LEED-H Platinum, single-family home in Ohio. In addition, the home is said to be the first in state to feature both solar thermal and photovoltaic solar panels on one roof. It's beautiful and traditional — definitely the kind of home our non-modern readers dream about — and accented by a leisurely large front porch. If you're in the area, there's an open house on Thursday, May 21, 2009; if you're not, we have some great photos to give you a peek inside. Check out its green features:

When we first mentioned Logical Homes in August 2007, I guess we didn’t realize how long it would be until the company actually launched. But I think the wait has been worth it. Logical Homes is officially out of pre-launch and just published details of their first three home designs. The company is run by a whole list of folks, but the most notable is probably their Creative Director and COO, Peter DeMaria. He’s a high profile expert in container architecture — don’t miss this video of him talking about container homes. Let’s check out what Logical Homes just introduced:

This beautiful and traditional home is the first LEED Platinum home in Connecticut. The three bedroom and two bathroom home was designed/built by Jim and Mark Picton, or Picton Brothers, LLC, and was profiled last month by the new folks at GreenBuildingAdvisor. It's the kind of home that prioritizes design first and expensive green technology second. Picton Brothers went with a super-insulated envelope — R40 in the walls and R60 in the roof — which definitely helped the home earn a HERS score of 30, Five Star + Energy Star rating, and of course, the LEED Platinum certification. Check out some of this home's other green elements: